IT is an image that captures a remarkable meeting, when a man who wanted to be the US president made peace with Japan’s living God.

That historic moment – on September 27, 1945, when the Emperor Hirohito posed for the camera with the representative of his country’s conqueror, General Douglas MacArthur – was recaptured for World War II drama Emperor.

Meticulous care was taken to ensure that, to the tiniest detail, the actors in the movie – Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones and Japan’s Takataro Kataoko – copied the pose of these historic figures. MacArthur with his arms placed at the base of his spine and Hirohito, who was dwarfed by the American, standing very stiff and formal.

Hollywood actor Matthew Fox plays General Bonner Fellers, the man who investigated whether Hirohito should be tried for war crimes and face execution.

And Fox, 47, who starred in the global smash-hit TV series Lost, was impressed by the care that was taken as the film team recreated the iconic photograph.

Meeting of MacArthur and Hirohito

He said: “I was there on the day we shot that scene and they had the famous photo on the set.

“There was a lot of holding up the photograph and making sure that the background and everything else was in the right position. It was a cool moment to be there.

“Then, when we were in Tokyo, we had lunch with the ambassador there at what had been MacArthur’s residence.

“So we actually had lunch in that room where the photo was taken. It was like the story coming full circle.”

The plot of Emperor is almost like an unknown part of relatively recent history.

Fox readily admits that, until he was invited to star in this movie, he had no idea of the complexity of the events that followed victory over Japan.

He said: “What little I knew about World War II was so dominated by the European campaign…Hitler and the Holocaust.

“Other than Pearl Harbour and us using the atomic bomb for the first time, I didn’t know much about the war against Japan.

“Yet by far the bloodier campaign for Americans was in the Pacific. We had far more casualties in the South Pacific than we did storming the beaches of Normandy.

“Right after the Japanese surrender, there was this crucial period of time when decisions were made in reconciliation and rebuilding.

How different the world might have looked if those decisions had not been made.”

Which brings us to the thorny and delicate issue examined by the film when MacArthur had to decide whether or not Hirohito should be judged as a war criminal.

It’s reckoned that, at the time, around 70 per cent of Americans thought the Emperor should be tried.

US servicemen protested to that effect outside MacArthur’s HQ and there were calls in Russia and Australia for the Japanese leader to be prosecuted.

Fox said: “There would have been chaos if that had happened. I’m pretty sure that the stability of that whole region would have been a lot different.”

It was because Emperor tackled such a serious subject and that it had the capacity to illuminate a new generation that Fox was drawn to it.

He said: “I hoped this film might not just be entertaining but might also be important.”

Once he committed to the making of the movie, Fox immersed himself in researching the period – reading books and watching archive footage.

It was, he says, a fascinating education.

He added: “There was a bunch of things that surprised me, things that I never knew.

“But the one thing that stood out was the fact that the Japanese people had never heard the Emperor’s voice. That was shocking to me.

“The first time that they heard him speak was when he made the broadcast that was telling them that they had to lay down their arms and surrender – which went against everything that they believed in.

“This was less than 70 years ago and an entire country was serving the idea that their leader was a living God figure – and they had never heard his voice.

“Yet they were committing suicide in his name, fighting to the last child. That was incredible to me.”

Although Emperor was backed by Japanese money, the making of the film remained a highly sensitive issue in the Land of the Rising Sun.

The Japanese producers wanted to keep the filming that was done around the Imperial Palace secret because they were afraid that right-wing factions would try to break up the shoot. So low-key security was employed to avoid the chance of any mishaps.

Fox said: “We were the first film crew to be allowed to shoot in the grounds of the Imperial Palace.

“If you go there as a visitor, you are not allowed to take photographs because it is regarded as sacred ground.”

Ironically, or perhaps fittingly, the first time that Fox saw the film was when it had its premiere in Tokyo.

He said: “Normally, I don’t watch things that I am in but I felt I should see this film and I wanted to see it in Japan. I wanted to see it with a Japanese audience.

“So I stayed in the theatre and watched it and it was a very intense experience. It felt really rewarding and as though it was a release for the audience.

“I heard a lot of emotion in the theatre and the Japanese are very quiet people – they don’t like to show emotion very much.